


Everything Must Change

by printfogey



Category: One Piece
Genre: Female Friendships, Ficlet, Gen, Gen Fic, Maps, transience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-28
Updated: 2011-03-28
Packaged: 2017-10-17 08:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/printfogey/pseuds/printfogey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First posted at the LJ community onepiece_300, written for the prompt "Ephemerality". Set anytime when the crew is sailing together after Enies Lobby. Concrit and other feedback very welcome.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything Must Change

Nami fascinates Robin.

Nothing's more changeable than the weather, and no-one can read it and exploit it like Nami does – the smell of the air, the colour of the sky, the strength and direction of currents… Always guiding the ship through the capricious ocean, she seems the very mistress of what is fleeting and transient.

Yet her goal is to see past all that, to bind the changeable world and the capricious sea into neat and accurate lines on paper – to fill in the white spaces much like Robin seeks to restore lost knowledge of times past. To make something that _lasts_.

One day, up on third deck, Robin asks her what she'd do if something ever happened to her maps.

"Strangle the one responsible; then redraw them," answers Nami.

"Then, what if your notes were lost as well?" asks Robin.

Nami is silent for a moment, watering the earth around her tangerine trees.

Then she shrugs. "What else? I'd just have to go back the same way and redraw it all from scratch." After a thoughtful beat, she adds, "I'll be doing that with East Blue, anyway."

"Hmm?" says Robin.

Nami puts the jug away and steps up to the railing. She continues calmly, "For eight years, I spent half my time charting East Blue. But most of that work got destroyed in a few minutes."

Then, astoundingly, she smiles – deeply, fondly. "And that made me very happy," she says quietly.

Startled, Robin waits to hear more. But Nami just keeps smiling mysteriously with her elbows on the railing, looking down at the sunlight glittering on the waves. She hums a tune softly.

Robin says nothing, not wanting to sound pushy or foolish. But as she studies her crewmate beside her, she wishes there was a chart for this.


End file.
